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St. Johns Avenue development raises concerns among neighbors

Plans are underway for a major new development on St. Johns Avenue, and residents of the area expressed their concern about it Monday, although few specific are available.

The application to the city calls for 350 apartments and 42,000 square feet of retail space -- but Mike Balanky, the developer behind plans to tear down the Commander Apartments and St. Johns Village on Fishweir Creek and build something new, said those are what the city allows, not what will end up on the site.

“Even if we could do that,” he said, “we wouldn’t.”

But those numbers and the uncertainty drew area residents when the city’s Planning and Development Department held a preview hearing on the project Monday afternoon.

The residents spoke about increased traffic (the Commander has only 99 units), about esthetics, about a parking garage on St. Johns and about the effect on the neighborhood elementary school and a nearby eagle’s nest.

“If they provide a plan that doesn’t significantly affect traffic and is attractive, then I’ll be in favor of it,” said Doug Coleman, who has lived two blocks away on St. Johns Avenue for 33 years. “But if they’re talking about a five-story parking garage and 350 units, then I won’t.”

Steve Diebenow, Balanky’s attorney, said the goal is to have the same or less traffic than the apartment building and shopping center produce now. St. Johns Village has 43,500 square feet.

Balanky and Diebenow said consultants working for the property’s owner, a corporation based in New Jersey, are doing market studies to see what combination of residential and retail would work on the 5.9 acres.

Diebenow said conceptual plans now call for apartments on Fishweir Creek, wrapping around the parking garage. If there’s retail, he said, that would be on the first floor of the apartment buildings.

There are also plans for a riverwalk along the creek and a kayak launch, both open to the public.

Balanky has applied for a land-use change on the 3.3 acres where St. Johns Village is and a zoning change on the entire parcel.

They also said they would work with the city, with area residents and with Riverside-Avondale Preservation before finalizing any plans. A meeting with residents is scheduled for May 13.

Balanky led a project in 2006 to build condominiums and retail on the site. The rezoning was approved, but the condo market crashed and it was never built.